Well, week 1 of the NFL season is in the books, with a lot of close games decided in the last two minutes (stupid Bungles costing me a shot at winning week 1 of the pick 'em pool I'm in). Here is the next weekly installment of 10 things I gleaned from the sports world in general.

1) How 'Bout Them Cowboys?- Well, one week after defeating the Georgia Bulldogs at home, The Oklahoma State Cowboys come out and lay an egg against the Houston Cougars. What, were they looking ahead to that epic clash against Rice? Indefensible. I love Mike Gundy, but whenever a team fails to get up for a game, it falls squarely on his shoulders. And how about the set of stones on Lee Corso? He picked this upset on ESPN's College Gameday. Kirk Herbstreit had to check and make sure the coach was actually picking them to win outright, and not just putting Okie State on upset alert (which it seems Herbstreit had them there as well, just didn't think there was any way they'd lose that game at home without even an opponent to "Look Ahead" to). The one week dream of challenging for a national title is dead (unless Oklahoma loses one more, Texas would likely have to lose two, and several other things would have to break their way). I know they're not completely out of it yet, but you can't come out of this game as say Oklahoma did last week losing to BYU on a neutral field.

2) A shot at Todd Blackledge- This is something I never thought I'd do, especially since when it comes to college football colormen, he's probably second only to Gary Danielson in my book, but not knowing a basic rule WHEN YOU'VE PLAYED THE GAME is inexcusable. I gave him a pass last week for not being able to analyze the situation of everything that had happened after FSU's missed PAT (more on the Noles in a bit), but this I cannot forgive him for. Come with me to this week's UCLA-Tennessee game which he was calling. 3rd down from their own 1 yard line late in the game up 19-13. UCLA's quarterback falls asleep in the end zone and dives trying to avoid the safety. Blackledge starts screaming for a booth review because part of the ball was out past the goal line. Here's the problem. THE GOAL LINE IS PART OF THE ENDZONE. EVERYTHING ALONG THAT PAINTED STRIPE IS IN THE END ZONE. Whereas you simply have to break the plane to get a TD, to avoid a safety THE ENTIRE BALL MUST BE OUTSIDE THE ENDZONE. Clearly A LOT of the ball was still in the end zone on that play. Safety. I do have to give credit to Blackledge and Nessler for explaining what UCLA would have liked to do in that situation with running as much clock as possible which would have required them getting it to fourth down (although I wouldn't even bother sending the punt team in. I'd have the QB take the hike from under center and have him run around as much as he could. You risk snapping it over the punters head [see South Carolina versus Georgia, Southern California versus Ohio State]). I was kind of hoping Tennessee would win that game so that maybe they would come into the swamp this week with a false sense of confidence and maybe bravado. But, thanks to Crompton, and his three picks (god I hope he starts this week), that didn't happen. On a side note, how many safeties were there this week? I could count four in just the games I watched at least a part of.

3) Tressel logic: p->q=F- I sure wish somebody would explain to me why for somebody with the reputation of being as conservative of a coach as he is gets these quirky moments at the worst times, especially in big games. I still remember his decision on January 8th, 2007 of after being absolutely blown up on a third and one from his own 29 down 10 and possibly still in the game of going for it on 4th and 1, getting stuffed, and eight plays later it's 34-14 (I still thank him for that, by the way). Now, come forward to Saturday night. Late in the first half, up 3, ball again deep in your own territory. And you're throwing downfield??? His explanation to Holly Rowe was you can never have enough points, especially against USC or something to that effect. While true, there is a way to go about this (which Pete Carroll, coincidentally, followed to a T to tie it up and almost go in up 14-10). You don't take your shots downfield there. You run and use short passes to try to get down to about the 50. If you don't go anywhere, the clock has very little time on it. If you get to around the 50, you start thinking FG, and maybe open up intermediate routes and quicken the pace. Should you get down to the 20-25, then you start thinking TD. This tried and true method has worked many a time. Carroll was perfectly happy to try to get off the field only down 3 and regroup in the locker room, but tOSU fell asleep on defense, allowed a run to about midfield, and you all know what happened from there. Tressel needs to learn to dance with the girl that brought him there, because if you're not good enough to win with talent alone, strange decisions like this will almost never help, and often hurt you instead. Something similar happened to Charlie Weis at the end of the ND game ...

4) May the Forcier Be With You- Thank you Michigan, from the bottom of my heart!!! For those of you who followed me last year, you know my opinion of the ND Fighting Irish, or more specifically, their fans. God, they were getting full of themselves based on what? Two wins over Hawaii and Nevada? It all came crashing down this week, and made people like the four letter network's Lou Holtz and Shaun King look ridiculous. I said after the Hawaii game last year that Notre Dame would go 9-3 this year due to their soft schedule, return to a BCS bowl where they would be completely over matched, and get blown out starting their new 9 game bowl losing streak. I've seen nothing to change this (altough they may not lose less than 4 games, which would be fine by me). And to Michigan, I hope this is a sign you are turning things around after last year's debacle. Your D still needs major work, but Forcier is fun to watch, and will keep you in most games this year.

5) Tough start for the Almost Competitive Conference- Sorry, Bradman, but after watching FSU go into the last minute against Jacksonville State, there is no denying that the ACC is off to a rough start. The good news is, they were off to a bad start last year, and ended up rebounding and sending 10 teams to bowl games. You can't lose two and nearly a third game to FCS competition, though.

6) Fake Delhomme strikes again- Suprised John Fox didn't break down into a "Playoffs?" rant after that performance. Jake is responsible for a whopping ELEVEN turnovers in his last two games, which simply cannot happen in the NFL. This might be the begining of the end.

7) Is it okay to call Bush a bust now?- Something that will likely get lost in the Saints throttling of the Lions and Brees' SIX touchdown passes (and Stafford's three picks) was what Reggie Bush did. Or more specifically, what he didn't do. I have said all along that this guy is playing the wrong position in that same way the Mike Vick was a RB lining up with his hands under the center's butt, Bush is a WR lining up behind the QB. In a game in which Pierre Thomas didn't play due to injury, Bush had his obligatory 5 receptions for 50 some odd yards, but only achieved 18 yards rushing. Saints fans will turn a blind eye and say it was because of how effective Mike Bell was running the ball, but, you must remember that you drafted this guy SECOND overall, not in the second round, and are paying him the money as such. You HAVE to get more production from him than just a receiving threat that once in a blue moon breaks the big play.

8) The Falcons continue the momentum- In my look ahead point last week, I pegged this game for this reason. It was a huge win by the Falcons to establish forward momentum into this season in the hopes of stringing back to back winning seasons together for the first time in franchise HISTORY. I'm POed, though, because in my real fantasy league, I have three Falcons on my team (and no Bucs, which is painful for me, but, can't pick with your heart) and ironically started the wrong one (one's Elam, my kicker, so he doesn't count). Never would have guessed that Tony Gonzalez would out perform Michael Turner, but maybe I should have. Tony looks to be a HUGE pick up for the dirty birds (and hopefully for me as well). By the way, in my real league, TE's are optional and are considered a receiver and not their own position, so there was a huge risk/reward factor. And I won by two, so all in all it wasn't too bad. Just wouldn't have had to sweat out Nate Kaeding last night.

9) Take this ball and shove it down your bleeping throat, I ain't playin' here no more- Wow! Talk about two people who have to know the situation and have to handle it WAY better than what they did. First, the lineswoman cannot make that call in that situation unless it is obvious. Honestly, Williams was unlikely to come back, but now we'll never know. And Serena, you CANNOT let your flustrations get the best of you and you ABSOULTELY must handle yourself in a more professional manner. Come on. Bad calls happen in every sport. Lou Pinella may kick some dirt, but I doubt he's out there threatening to shove a baseball down an umpire's throat. Two wrong's never make a right (although two Wright's did make an airplane), but in this case, Serena's wrong far outweighs that of the lineswoman. While I'm talking tennis, last week I said I was looking forward to how far Melanie Oudin could go. Then comes the story on the day after she's ousted that her mom is having an affair with her coach. Apparently, divorce paperwork was filed by Melanie's dad nearly a year ago, and somehow the story is just now breaking. I'm glad it didn't break during the tournament, but you do have to question the timing of it. And way for yet another tennis parent to get in the way of their kid's career. We should be celebrating Melanie's accomplishment's, not putting her in tabloids.

10) The look ahead- The things I'm looking forward to this week are UF Tennessee (obviously) to see if Monte Kiffin can keep the game within 50 (seriously doubt he can cash the check his kid's mouth wrote), Notre Dame Michigan State to see which team can bounce back, Nebraska Va Tech to see if the Huskers are for real (or if the Hokies potentially aren't), and Texas Tech Texas in a rematch of an absolute classic last year, and in the pros, the Giants and Cowboys to see how many punts hit the scoreboard (and it should be a good game).

Moo, your Mizzou Tigers took nearly the whole game to wake up against Bowling Green. What was up with that? Using cyclical logic (which would give us an FCS team winning the title every year) that makes Bowling Green much better than the Fighting Zooks.

I'm a little under the weather and under the gun this week, so I'm only doing a half dose. Update: Now that I'm feeling better, and over my celebratory hangover from Thursday night (Go Gators!!!), I'm expanding this week's installment back to 10. There were other things I definitely wanted to hit on. I considered doing part 2 of this week under next week's entry, but decided instead to finish it, and just post a link next week back to this one.

1) Just exactly how good is the Big 12 Conference - A strange thought entered my head during the Fiesta Bowl in the final moments before Ohio State's defensive coordinator suffered a mental lapse of epic proportions. Had Ohio State held on to that game, the Big 12 conference would have been 3-3 going into the BCS Championship game. The real funny thing would have been, though, that all three wins would have come from teams in the north, which was the inferior division this year. Now while these games have no bearing on the title game and the better team should win, it makes me question just how strong the "strongest" conference was this year. Update: I think the answer to this question is now clearly a resounding, "Not as strong as everybody (including myself) thought they were!" Still doesn't change the fact that they were the best conference this year (or that the SEC had a down year despite 6-2), but sheesh!

2) Could Mack Brown and Pete Carroll please STFU - Oh my god!!!! Are these two coaches clueless. Hey Mack, there's no way that IMPRESSIVE victory on THE LAST PLAY over a tOSU team you were SUPPOSED to destroy is going to convince voters in the AP to vote Texas number 1. In fact, they might be lucky to be voted number 4 behind the winner of the title game, Utah, and USC. When you say there will be a split title come Friday, that may be, but it won't be the Longhorns splitting it, genius. Now, on to Carroll, who's team might get some first place votes. You come out and say "Nobody can beat this USC team"? Not, I think this team is the best in the country? Not, nobody's playing better right now than we are? Guess what. Somebody DID beat this USC team, which is why they were playing in the ROSE BOWL. You might have remembered them. They were called Oregon State. Honestly, if there is a split title on Friday (doubt it, especially if Florida wins since they are already number 1 in that poll), the team with the best case is Utah. Afterall, they are the only undefeated team in all of the FBS.

3) My Predictions are going south - I don't want to look at what my bowl record is, and my NFL predictions were 1-3 after amazingly 2 home teams won (and not the one I picked to do so, sorry Yo) despite all 4 road teams being favored. Honestly, the most suprising was San Diego over Indy (and Jay Cutler, please come on down for your dose of STFU). Honestly, if it wasn't for the Chargers mistakes, Indy wouldn't have even been in that game. Just goes to show that the any given Sunday rule applies even to the playoffs. Since I picked all four home teams this round anyway, I won't bother repicking (since they should {hopefully} win).

4) The forgotten third team - I'm surprised by all the OU and UF fans who think this game will be a blowout, with their team reaching potentially the 60's in scoring. I just don't see it. I see it being a close game with both teams in the thirties (for a total in the sixties). First off, I'm tired of UF and OU fans defending thier team/conference by using the "Big 12 plays no defense" and "The SEC has no offense" lines. Simply put, OU will be the best offense that UF will play this year, and UF will be the best defense OU will play this year, and anybody not accepting this is just refusing to take off their homer glasses. But if my predicition is correct of it being a close, potentially lower scoring game, then special teams could play a huge role, and this is where UF has a clear advantage and will hopefully cash in big time. People tend to easily overlook it, but special teams can put up huge hidden numbers. With all they're great returns and punt blocks, how many times did the Gators have a short field this year? Not only does starting from the 50+ greatly increase your chances of a TD, but it's hard to rack up huge offensive numbers when you do so 25% of the time. The only way OU is likely to operate on a short field is if they force turnovers, something they are very good at doing, but UF is very good at avoiding. Now maybe this won't be a factor in the game, and maybe OU wins anyway, but I feel this will lead to ...

5) BuccinGator's BCS Championship Game Prediction - UF 37 OU 31

6) Geaux LSU - Wow, I did not see that beat down coming on Dec. 31st. In fact, to my embarassment, I had it completely the other way. After watching Georgia Tech just manhandle Miami and Georgia, getting something like 400+ yards rushing in EACH GAME, I thought LSU would be completely overmatched, especially since they struggled defensively this year. This, and I felt Georgia Tech was the best team in the ACC (guess it really was Virginia Tech. By the way, is there a conference that is stronger in the middle but weaker at the top than the ACC? Simply put, no). Well, I'll happily eat my crow on this one. Part of the problem is I used cyclical logic on this one, which I should know better than to do. I figured since GT destroyed Georgia, and Georgia destroyed LSU ... well you see where that went. It's the same logic that most year's will allow you do say that a FCS school should be national champs (because they beat team W that beat team X that beat team Y that beat team Z that beat the national champs). Ugh.

7) Utes in (and display some) good hands at Allstate Sugar Bowl - What a great game for Utah. I think Alabama was surprised by the speed and tenacity that Utah displayed. Alabama did show some guts in cutting it from 21-0 to 21-17 in the second half, but honestly, the only time Bama was really close in that game was the opening coin toss. To some degree, this was caused by Utah realizing that this game was their Super Bowl. With as good as the Mountain West was this year, maybe next year Utah and/or TCU will start off high enough in the polls that they will have a legitimate shot at Pasadena next year. The rest of this might have been caused by ...

8) Andre the Giant Mistake - Where the heck was this kid's head? Talking to an agent BEFORE he plays his final game? I think he was a senior (Bamaman, feel free to add a comment and correct me if I'm wrong), which means he won't be in the Senior Bowl, either. Now while he has the talent where he'll still be a first rounder, this didn't help him at all. More over, it hurt his team, big time. You can't do anything this blatantly silly, especially right before a major bowl game. Way to go, Smith!

9) Rebeling against the Raiders - What a game put in by Ole Miss (Arkansas fans ... again, you wanted Petrino over Nutt? I'm going to keep hammering this until it sinks in. Not only is Nutt a better coach, but Petrino is a certifiable TRAITOR. You'll learn the hard way soon enough when he realizes the SEC is over his head, just like the NFL was). I had this game as being much closer than most people thought, and the Rebs did not disappoint. I was telling everyone who would listen (SEC fans {especially Georgia fans}, Big 12 fans {especially Texas Tech fans}, and Big 10 fans {especially Iowa fans, because I wanted to see them here in Tampa}) that Ole Miss was the third best team in the SEC this year, and they went out and proved it on the field. Jevan Sneed will be a stud. In a down year for SEC QB play, he was a bright spot.

10) Matt Ryan will be a great QB, but don't crown him yet - There was talk about the midway point of the NFL season of considering Matt Ryan for NFL MVP. I quickly pointed out on a thread that such talk was ridiculous and WAY too early, but he was a deserving offensive ROY (although I told people then not to forget about Forte. I had Ryan winning it back then, be he was CLEARLY deserving after the season). The point here, though, maybe Michael Turner was more worthy of MVP talk. After all, in the games where I saw him get shut down (the first Panthers and Buccaneers games for ATL), Matt Ryan looked VERY MUCH like a lost rookie. HUGE kudos to the Arizona Cardinals for doing the same thing and getting the same result.